December 2nd 10 BC

Fortingall - birthplace of Pontius Pilate?

Fortingall, a pretty little village at the mouth of Glenlyon has at least three claims to fame. It houses the venerable yew tree said to be three thousand years old. Also in a field in front of the village there stands a solitary stone, Cairn na Marbh (the cairn of the dead). In the 14th Century when the plague devastated the village, an old woman with a white horse and sledge carried the bodies to a mass grave in the field and when there were no more corpses to bury, erected a cairn to mark the spot.

There is a third and rather more fanciful claim to fame; that Fortingall was the birthplace of Pontius Pilate.

At this particular time King Metallanus ruled the Scots. “The maist humull prince that rang above the Scottis to his days havand na uncouth nor domestik waris during his time.” King Metallanus lived at Fortingall. He lived at a time when CaesarAugustus was attempting to estend the boundaries of his empire by peaceful means rather than by conquest. Envoys were sent to King Metallanus inviting him to conclude a treaty of friendship with Rome and inviting him to send tribute to the Emperor. The envoys in token of Rome’s friendship brought “sundry goldin crownis and rich jewillis” and waited patiently for a reply.

It is believed that the envoys remained at Fortingall for over a year. Perhaps it was just that Metallanus took a long time to make up his mind or perhaps the snows of winter hindered the return of the envoys. No doubt the King, as an early gesture of friendship would permit liaisons to be formed between some of the local women and the Roman envoys, and tradition has it that one gave birth to Pontius Pilate. When Metallanus finally decided to send “money rich jewillis to be offerit to the August Emperor and his Romane Goddis” and the envoys returned to Rome the baby was taken with them.

After all this time it is unlikely that we shall ever know if there is any truth in this tradition but it is strange that it should have persisted so long. And for those that are still interested, it is always claimed that Pilate’s mother was a Menzies.